1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a rolled medium accommodation device and a liquid ejection device comprising this rolled medium accommodation device.
2. Related Art
There are known liquid ejection devices in which a liquid (e.g. ink) is ejected from a liquid ejection head and deposited onto a recording medium (paper or the like), whereby a predetermined image (including letters, pictures, and the like) is printed on the paper. In this type of liquid ejection device, in cases of large-scale printing requiring numerous sheets of paper or cases of performing elongated printing with a long printing range in the paper conveying direction, the paper must be continuously supplied to the consuming side where the paper is consumed by the printing. Therefore, such a liquid ejection device is provided with a roll paper accommodation device whereby, when roll paper (a rolled medium) consisting of elongated paper (continuous paper) wound into a roll is accommodated, the roll paper is rotated and the paper can thereby be unwound from the roll paper to be unreeled and supplied to the consuming side.
Such a roll paper accommodation device is provided with a roll paper accommodation unit for accommodating roll paper. When the paper has been unwound from the accommodated roll paper and entirely consumed, a lid provided to the roll paper accommodation unit is opened and the roll paper is replaced with new roll paper. There have been proposals of various structures in which urging unit for urging the lid in the opening direction are provided in order to make it easier to open and close the lid, for cases in which the lid is heavy in weight, for example, or the lid is otherwise not easily opened and closed at this time. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-51163, for example, discloses a configuration of a thermal transfer printer comprising a gas spring axially supported at one end on a turning frame. Consequently, if such a configuration is used for the lid of the roll paper accommodation unit, the lid is opened and closed easily.
However, there are cases in which roll paper for supplying paper to the consuming side, or roll paper for replacement, for example, is accommodated within the liquid ejection device separately from the roll paper accommodated in the roll paper accommodation unit. In this case, when the liquid ejection device is being used, the removal portion when the separate roll paper is removed from the liquid ejection device is sometimes blocked by the roll paper accommodation unit. In such cases, the separate accommodated roll paper must be removed from the liquid ejection device by swinging (raising) the roll paper accommodation unit in the opposite direction of gravity around one shaft provided to the liquid ejection device, so that the removal portion is not blocked.
Therefore, the configuration disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-51163 is effective when used as the roll paper accommodation unit. Specifically, by providing a gas spring so as to apply urging force opposing the total weight of the entire roll paper accommodation unit including the accommodated roll paper, the roll paper accommodation unit can easily be swung in the opposite direction of gravity. When the roll paper accommodation unit has risen in the opposite direction of gravity and reached the high position by swinging, it can be prevented from falling in the direction of gravity due to its own weight. The removal portion is thereby not blocked by the roll paper accommodation unit, and the roll paper accommodated in the liquid ejection device can therefore be easily removed.